En Español

In the US, the Mavericks are packaged to the mainstream as a country band. They can play anything, from rockabilly to Latin music to Tex-Mex, and even inject light jazz and white soul into the mix to create a sort of noir Cuban-country-pop fusion. En Español is a trip back to the band’s Miami roots following a 30-year career and several line-ups, with a dozen songs – all in Spanish, as the title indicates – that explore the myriad ways Latin music crosses over into the US. Surviving founder member and singer Raul Malo, who loves a soaring vocal and a male chorus, leads his four-piece and an army of 20 or more invited guests on a tour of the border states as well as Hispanic Florida. The hoof-step rhythms suggest we’re on a lonesome ride across the prairies, but then we stop at some dust-coated ghost-town for a cry over unrequited love.

Track titles capture the key Mavericks moods: ‘Recuerdos’ (Memories), ‘Sombras Nada Mas’ (Nothing but Shadows), ‘No Vale la Pena’ (It’s Not Worth it). This is Mexican melancholy: kitsch, tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top. The music is in some ways less mainstream than the desert rock of Calexico, but it is also less original. ‘Me Olvidé de Vivir’ (I Forgot to Live) sounds like a mash-up of ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ and ‘Gentle on my Mind’; the jangly arpeggios and jungle beats channel, respectively, cowboy films and old-school tropical cabaret. But with all those backing musicians, playing everything from harp to bajo sexto to cello, powering things along, the final product is a thoroughly likeable, deeply enjoyable journey into the Spanish-American imaginary.